


404 Attraction not found

by Schreibmaschine



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Ace Gavin Reed, Asexual Gavin Reed, Coming Out, Confessions, Gavin Reed is Bad at Feelings, Love Confessions, M/M, Restaurant Date, Soft Upgraded Connor | RK900
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-24
Updated: 2021-01-24
Packaged: 2021-03-16 18:00:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,216
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28960593
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Schreibmaschine/pseuds/Schreibmaschine
Summary: Gavin and Nines are getting closer. But there is one thing Gavin hadn't come clear with yet and there might be no other way than doing it now that Nines invited him out on Valentine's day.
Relationships: Upgraded Connor | RK900/Gavin Reed
Comments: 14
Kudos: 52





	404 Attraction not found

‘Oh man, I’m not into men usually, but I’d definitely be gay for that one’, Chris laughed, admiring the person on the screen of the superhero movie they were watching currently. It was Friday evening: movie night. ‘God, he’s so hot, imagine his ass out of uniform!’  
Gavin lifted his brows, studying the character and still not really seeing what Chris meant. The man looked over to them and laughed. ‘Come on, can’t be the only one!’  
‘Sorry, I’ve got the hots for the villain once again. She’s just too powerful not to love.’  
‘And you?’, Chris asked and nudged Gavin with his elbow.  
‘Hmm? Yeah, same. Dude’s hot’, he answered. ‘Now keep it in your pants, haven’t seen this one yet! Wanna know what happens next.’  
‘Alright’, Chris chuckled and leaned back.  
Gavin did see how Tina side-eyed him knowingly, but chose to ignore it, hoping she wouldn’t address the topic in a misguided attempt to help.

They continued watching the movie, eating snacks and talking about anything that came to their mind. Tina got increasingly clingy the more she had drunken and as it had long become dark outside, Gavin decided to leave, driving her home. He thanked Chris and waved him goodbye at the door of his car.  
Their drive was silent until they stopped at a red light.  
‘I’m sorry Gavin’, Tina lulled touching his elbow gently. ‘Maybe if you told him-‘  
‘Tina, it doesn’t bother me, okay?’, Gavin told her, maybe a bit too harsh. ‘And I’m really not in the mood to explain it yet again and hear all the same phrases over and over again. I can’t even complain or get mad about them, they are well meant. Phck. I will just continue to say what I’m supposed to say and it’s done with. Path of least resistance, as always. The reward really doesn’t justify the effort, okay?’  
‘Alright!’, Tina nodded, giving him a shaky thumbs-up. ‘My lips are sealed.’  
‘Thank you.’  
‘And what’s with Nines?’

Gavin frowned and looked over at her. ‘What’s with Nines?’  
‘You two. Anything going on?’  
‘How many times do I have to tell you? We are friends, Tina.’  
‘Are you sure?’ She smiled at him. ‘I’d say the tin-can has the hots for you.’  
Gavin groaned. ‘Come on. Who the hell would want me? And hell, even if it were like that, I’ll deal with it if it happens someday, okay?’  
‘You don’t want to do anything about it? Are you interested?’  
‘Tina. I barely know the guy. I mean, sure, we spend a lot of time together. But that’s it. It’s difficult. I’m can’t know it like you seeing the girl of your dreams and drooling over how hot her thighs or something. I like him, I enjoy spending time with him. I could imagine living with him. That’s all.’  
‘Booooring.’  
‘Tina, I’m not existing to entertain you.’  
‘Still you do most of the days.’  
‘Then maybe you have a shitty sense of humour.’

Tina laughed and sat up. ‘Alright, you win, okay? Just know that if you want a relationship you deserve it.’  
‘Yeah, the hell I deserve it!’, Gavin sighed exasperated, gripping the steering wheel tighter. _But who’s the poor phcker that deserves this_ , he added as an afterthought.

-

‘Hey, Gavin?’  
The Detective looked up from his terminal to Nines who was standing next to him placing a coffee on his table. ‘Yeah?’  
‘Are you free on Monday?’  
Gavin frowned. ‘Yeah, I should be, why?’  
‘I’d like to invite you out. I discovered a really nice restaurant that serves android food. Thought we could try it out?’  
Gavin shrugged, already back to his report. ‘Yeah, sure. Would love to.’  
He missed the way Nines beamed at that answer. It might have given him the push to realise Monday was the 14th February. Valentine’s day.

He only realised that the Sunday before as he contemplated what to wear. He immediately called Tina:  
‘T, red alert! Tomorrow is Valentine’s day.’  
‘Yeah, I know. What’s up?’  
‘Well, Nines invited me to a restaurant tomorrow.’  
‘Oh, that’s nice! I’m happy for you!’  
‘Yeah, well I’m not!’, Gavin returned. ‘Is that a date?’  
‘Maybe? Could be. What did he tell you?’  
‘He just said it was a fancy restaurant that sells android food he wanted to try out.’  
Tina sighed. ‘I don’t know then. Could very well be a date. With the day and all.’  
‘God, what if he’s interested?’, Gavin asked. ‘Tina, I will ruin it. The guy will hate me.’  
‘Why should he?’  
‘Because I will have to tell him I’m basically not interested!’  
‘But you are right?’, Tina dug deeper.  
‘Yeah, but until I’ve explained him in what way I’m interested, he will already be disappointed!’  
‘Gavin’, his friend spoke up, reminding him to keep calm. ‘You are overthinking. Nines is pretty direct. Maybe this isn’t a date at all. And if it is, you have no way of predicting his reaction. All I know is that Nines is a very patient being. You should go.’  
‘Of course I will go, Tina. Phck, just know that after this is over, I will need a new partner.’

-

The restaurant really looked nice from where Gavin was sitting in his car. It had a modern feeling but lots of dark wood had been used inside that made it comfy and bordering to a touch dowdy. He could see the android sitting at a table at the far corner by the windows and he was sure he had already recognised his car. Gavin shouldn’t stay inside for long, but he couldn’t really bring himself to exit either. ‘It’s just you two meeting at a restaurant Gavin. You had been to the movies already. You had met to watch the boats pass on the river, for phcks sake! This is just another one of those things you do together. Don’t think too much!’  
He pushed himself up and exited the car, locking it and pulling his clothes in order. Then he walked over, entered and quickly made his way over to Nines’ table.

‘Hello Gavin!’, the android greeted him. ‘Nice to see you.’  
‘Hi’, Gavin answered, sitting down. ‘Yeah, you too.’  
‘You look nice.’  
Gavin swallowed and looked at the android. He didn’t wear a suit, but a nice white shirt with a blue tie. He was thankful he had picked something more presentable than his usual attire: A blue short-sleeved shirt and light blue jeans. ‘Err… you too.’  
Damn, he was repeating himself.

‘I’m really interested in how this android food works’, Nines changed topics then, handing Gavin a menu. ‘I know it’s all a combination of Thirium and compounds we can break down in our filtering systems. But Connor loves it, he told me it actually has taste, even if it’s mostly messing with our analysing programs to achieve that.’  
Gavin nodded. ‘Yeah, sounds cool. I mean, eating is nice, I guess.’  
‘I don’t know if I will like it, to be honest’, Nines shrugged. ‘I mean, we don’t need to eat and to a large part it’s just complications to clean afterwards. But You can share a meal with someone and I guess that’s the whole appeal for human android couples.’

Gavin didn’t want to look at Nines as he said that and instead let his eyes wander over the other people in the restaurant. A large – if not all of them – were indeed human android couples spending Valentine’s day together. Laughing at each other’s jokes, eating and toasting to the other. It made Gavin even more uncomfortable though. A fact that Nines picked up on immediately, of course. But before he could speak up, a waiter came up to them and saved Gavin from the conversation.  
Both of them ordered and waited until the waiter had disappeared. Gavin had hoped the android had forgotten, but instead Nines spoke up: ‘You are nervous.’  
‘Yeah, no shit, tin-can. Well, not nervous, but…‘  
‘But?’

Gavin sighed and looked at the android, who was returning his stare completely neutral.  
‘Nines, what is this? You invited me out to a fancy restaurant on Valentine’s day. It could be you just wanted to try the food, but I’m afraid there’s more to it.’  
Nines pulled a grimace, blushing. ‘There’s no fooling you, is there?’ He added a smile afterwards, but Gavin’s face fell.  
‘I wanted to wait until after dinner, but of course, we can discuss it now too.’  
Gavin rubbed his face in frustration. ‘Phck.’  
‘Gavin? Everything alright?’  
The man looked up, then blew his cheeks. ‘Yeah.’ He dropped his hands. ‘Yes, please, what did you wanted to tell me?’  
‘I really enjoy your company’, Nines begun. ‘I actually don’t want to miss any day we were together. You are a fascinating human being and I admire your way of thinking. Your humour is… cute in its own way. I just wanted to tell you that…’ The android huffed. ‘Well, I guess I’ve beaten around the bush for long enough. I love you, Gavin.’

There it was. Gavin’s dream and at the same time worst nightmare. He wanted to be happy about it, but if he was being honest with himself, he couldn’t quite feel anything but despair.  
‘Phck’, he sighed.  
‘Excuse me?’  
‘Nines, I… Thank you’, Gavin began. ‘I really appreciate it, but… I don’t feel like you do.’  
The android swallowed. ‘Oh. Oh, err… that’s okay, it’s totally fine, I’m sorry I said anything. I-‘  
‘Nines, stop. I’m bad at this. I do love you. Romantically. I just can’t love you the same way you love me.’  
Nines cocked his head inquisitively. ‘What do you mean?’  
‘Does the word asexual say you something?’, Gavin whispered, feeling self-conscious about telling Nines something so personal in a space so public. ‘I’m- It’s basically not feeling sexual attraction towards someone.’  
He looked up at Nines, afraid to see his disappointment. But the android was just sitting there, listening. ‘I can’t… I know someone’s beautiful, okay? Like this restaurant is nice, you look amazing, something like that. But there’s no sexy-sensor, basically. I’m not going around the city, seeing people and think I’d tap that, you understand?’

Nines nodded thoughtfully. ‘I think so. So there’s no particular feature of a person’s body you find attractive?’  
‘No’, Gavin nodded. ‘I mean, with time something could develop, but at first glance? Nah.’  
‘I’m sorry if this is intruding now’, the android began. ‘But you do have one-night stands every now and then, have you not?’  
Gavin sighed. There it was. ‘Yeah, I have. Because sex is great. It feels nice and some days you simply feel the urge. But none of the persons I hooked up with I found particularly hot. They were just… people.’  
‘So you do like sex.’  
‘Yes, for phck’s sake!’

His call had startled the waiter coming over with their food, but Gavin just leaned back embarrassed, as the plates were put down and they mumbled their thanks to the waiter.  
‘You had this conversation before, right?’, Nines spoke up gently as soon as the man had left them.  
Gavin just sighed and nodded. ‘Yeah. I’m not out to many, mostly because explaining something like that to others can be complicated. And it isn’t really worth the effort.’  
‘Then I thank you for telling me. I’m sorry for the inconvenience. I’m just fascinated. I thought it was an universal experience.’ He took up his fork and looked at the blue food on his plate, testing consistency. ‘Does this… Does this change anything in regard to what I told you?’  
Gavin looked up from his plate. ‘What? I mean I should rather ask if that changes something for you, to be honest.’  
The android shook his head. ‘No. I still love you. I mean I… To be honest I would really like to… spend the night with you? But if you don’t want that that’s… okay.’

The human sighed. ‘Okay, just to make it clear: I consider sex to be a gesture towards my partner. Like watching a movie with them I don’t know but they enjoy. It feels good and knowing your partner feels it too is… it’s nice, okay. I’m not abstinent, I just don’t find anyone attractive. That’s it.’  
Nines smiled then. ‘Well it doesn’t change anything for me then. I still love you and would like to… deepen our relationship if you feel the same.’  
‘I… I would very much like that too’, Gavin smiled, unable to keep eye-contact with the android. ‘If you accept me despite what I’m missing.’  
‘You’re not-‘  
‘I am’, Gavin interrupted. ‘But it’s not a disadvantage. But I am missing something others have and that’s okay and I want to know you accept that.’  
Nines blinked surprised. ‘Yes. Yes, I accept that.’

Gavin’s shoulders untensed and he finally took his first bite from the plate. The food was indeed amazing. ‘Then I’m sorry I made your date so awkward’, he chuckled. ‘Please, could you repeat what you’ve said?’  
‘What part?  
‘The “I love you” part.’  
Nines straightened his back and nodded. ‘I enjoy your company. You are fascinating and funny and intelligent. I wanted to tell you for a long time now. I love you, Gavin.’  
Gavin smiled and took Nines’ hand in his. ‘I love you too.’


End file.
